I started cooking last night and experimenting with a few dried herbs to make a vegetable soup. I started off with a dutch oven and filled it alittle over 1/2 way with water. Brought it to a boil then added a bunch of spices like oregano, thyme, ground cumin, died red pepper flakes, salt and pepper all to taste. Then I added a box(about 1 lb) of elbow macaroni. I let that boil for about 5 minutes.

Then I opened up a few cans of vegetables: squash, black eyed peas, whole tomatoes, and a can of tomato puree and I added those to the pot and let it simmer until the noodles were done. Yeah I know I will get booed for using canned veggies, but I dont eat veggies regularly enough to buy a bunch of them fresh, so I use canned.(something Im trying to change by eating stuff like this) You can use fresh if you want.

When I plated it, I garnished it with a couple small scoops of ricotta cheese and crumbled bleu cheese.(make sure the soup is still pretty hot to the touch when you garnish it, else your cheese wont melt and the ricotta will make tiny grit/sand like taste in the soup)

Something else you can try that I saw on tv is to buy whole wheat rice krispies type cereal(non sugared type) and add that to your bowl if you like to have crackers in your soup. The whole wheat is better for you than the saltine crackers since I think its got fiber in it and not as much salt.

 

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oops I forgot to post that I added a very small can of tomato paste as well after everything was done cooking just to thicken it up. I might have gotten a bit too much water and it seemed alittle runny so I added the paste. If you cut down on the water used, you might not need it.

 

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if all you have is canned, then eat canned. it is still veggies.

do you have room in your freezer for a package of frozen veggies? those are most excellent.


veggie soup is awesome

 

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oh yeah I sometimes buy frozen veggies too.

 

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